Shooting for ASDA packaging

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Was busy last week shooting lots of images for packaging for ASDA own brands. It's not quite my usual style - it's sharper and a bit brighter - it has to work printed quite small on a plastic pack where the printing may not be wonderful so it's no place for subtlety. Nevertheless I like this shot and specially cropped a little as here.

Shot on NIkon D7000 with Profoto lighting and processed in Lightroom 4Beta.

Lascaux Cognac

The last thing we did in Cognac before heading home was to visit this delightful small Cognac distillery. They made both Pineau in a series of varieties of different ages and the most wonderful cognacs.
M. Lascaux showed us around, explaining the details of the process and then we got to sample the results. Our tasting journey was carefully choreographed, starting with an excellent Pineau and progressing on to the amazing tastes and subtle complexities of the oldest, the Familiale Reserve.
We brought a good collection home with us and so are continuing to enjoy the wonderful taste of Cognac.
These all shot on Olympus, EP-1 and XZ1, processed in Lightroom 3 and 4.

Conker does sleep very neatly

I have been playing with the new Lightroom 4 Beta and liking it very much. Most images seem to be pretty close to right, straight from the camera but the new tone correction sliders are so sensitive and effective that it's really easy to gmake everythig look even better. I love what Lightroom 4 has done to this pic of Conker lying on a floor that matched his fur tones beautifully!

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New props, new lens, new Lightroom!

Using a new Magic SLR lens, focused wide open at f1.7 on my new wooden measuring spoons from Daylesford Organics with red peppercorns, and processed in newly downloaded Lightroom 4 Beta. 

I dropped my original Magic SLR lens and dislodged one of the elements - if there's somebody out there capable of repairing it and wants a lot of fun with a little manual focus lens - make me an offer! (The element that's dislodged is the one closest to the camera body and thus totally easy to get at - don't need to take the lens apart.)
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The Church Field

I was devastated when they first ploughed up the field where I take my morning walk with Conker. It's still impossible to walk over the mountainous ranges of clay clods, but I have become slightly reconciled to the look of it, especially when it's lightened by a skim of frost on a cold morning.
These pics taken before Christmas show what I mean.

A night in Sées, Normandy

We didn't plan our journey south to Cognac for Christmas very carefully, and decided to stop when it got to about 6.30 in the evening. We found ourselves in the lovely small town of Sées in southern Normandy. I love the feeling of delighted surprise you can enjoy when you come across a lovely place by chance. Sées has a magnificent cathedral, astonishing in a little town with a neighbouring cathedral city just down the road in Alençon.
The town's pretty food shops were still open but unfortunately (or fortunately for Andro) the Brocante was closed - I had my heart set on the garden table and chairs, but they would have made for an uncomfortable journey if I had been able to buy them.
We found a hotel, Le Dauphin, by the old market hall, where we got a huge room and an excellent dinner, especially the whiting in sorrel sauce, and the home made cornbread which they produced as soon as they discovered I was gluten intolerant.
Attentive and kind service - a very good place to stay.